The Nobel Committee says it gave Dylan the award for "having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition." So they were giving it to him as a writer of songs that are sung not simply read. The connection between song and poetry is indubitable. Dalrymple cites lyrics that do stand especially well minus the music that accompanies them. But let's try some Dylan lyrics that, I think, do stand pretty well by themselves:
Take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time
Far past the frozen leaves
The haunted frightened trees
Out to the windy bench
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky
With one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea
Circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate
Driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow
Dylan deserves the prize for the same basic reason that anyone else who is given it does: Those charged with bestowing the prize decided to bestow it on him.
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